Most positively certainly not an interview.

Over the last few weeks I've been working on projects for the Gauche Alchemy blog as part of my spot as their Autumn 'Guest Designer at Large'!! A title which tended to suggest I was going to need a safety rope or flak jacket in order to survive the task. Luckily the only danger was that of me getting a touch over excited at the kit they'd sent me to work on!

Heather, Amy and Yasu the ladies behind Gauche Alchemy asked me to answer some questions [I'm too embarrassed to call it an 'interview' ] as a way to introduce me on their blog. Here's a snippet of the finished interview ... I mean the questions and answers thing ....;)

Heather: Tell us a little about your creative process.
Julie: I either begin with a photo which has the seed of a story which I’ll tell across the page or else I’ll take a photo especially to illustrate an idea, story or feeling that I feel like exploring that day.
After that, the process is usually the same: I sit with the photo in front of me and trawl through my stash matching and combining items to reflect the theme or to highlight the colours or in the photo. The whole colour matching part is a bit of an obsession for me!!!

For example: I got far too excited when making my ‘Littlest Room’ layout with your
‘Fun & Games’ Slurry kit because I realised that one of the game cards in it perfectly matched the colour of the toilet cisterns behind me in the photo!! Is that a little extreme?

I rarely buy anything in especially for a particular page or a project as I find it can be too contrived working that way. I like the element of surprise you get by combining items from different sources, [like magazines, stationary and ephemera] which I’ve collected over time. I also love swapping items with friends as it’s a great way to push yourself using things you may not have bought for yourself.

Heather: What are some of your must-have products right now?
Julie: I’m in love with cardboard at the moment! Clothes tags, shoe boxes, the packaging my Slurry Kit came in … you name it, I’ve been using it. In fact I’m working on a mini-book at the moment which has the top of an egg carton for a front cover – it was such a great shade of blue I couldn’t bear to put it in the recycling box. I’m also loving Diamond Glaze adhesive as it sticks all sorts of things to paper … and considering I like to use all sorts of things on my pages what more could I ask?

Heather: Music is a very essential part of my life; it can create moods and evoke memories. What music is inspiring you these days?
Julie: Right now I’m just in love with the Killer's song ‘Human’. I think Brandon Flowers has such an incredible voice and manages to deliver some pretty strange lyrics with real depth and poignancy. Every time he sings the line ‘My sign is vital, my hands are cold’ I think to myself: ‘now that would make such a cool title for a layout’!!! Watch this space!

For further in depth scrutiny of my personality including my revealing answer to Heather's question "If you were a piece of fruit, what fruit would you be and why?" then have a peek at the full length question-and-answer-chat-session-which-wasn't-in-any-way-an-interview here.

Oh and before I forget, they've just set up their kit subscription packages over on etsy with the suggestion that if your family loved you they'd buy you one as a gift, which I find to be rather thought provoking ..... [do you reckon anyone in my family noticed that that was a hint??]